Where Did Tax Windfall Revenue Go?

September 19, 2005|By David A. Hughes

The Village of Wellington Council passes more ordinances. But the village, unfortunately, is unable to enforce the ordinances it has on the books now.

The village regulates the use of boats, boat ramps and waterways in Wellington. As well, the sages of the village laid out terms for licenses for users, access to waterways, maintenance of docks, waste disposal and boat launching, and gave village staff the ability to set wake zones and speed limits (even though only electric motors are allowed).

A recent effort was the "no parking in the street" ordinance -- what a bust that was. They said it was a safety issue, and it is. Small children run out from behind parked cars, hidden from view, and are subject to being hit by speeding vehicles unchecked on neighborhood streets. But, that's another story, since the sheriff's budget is limited to speed traps on Forest Hill Boulevard and State Road 7.

Now they tell me they cannot enforce the "no parking in the street" regulation due to manpower shortages and increased demands for service. Yet the council was touting its windfall profit revenues from construction.

I don't get it. They have more money, they can hire more code enforcement officers and use the Sheriff's authority paid for by our taxes. If it is safety, how can there be an argument? Enforce it, period.

What happened is that they allowed all this new money -- I mean, new construction -- to come into the village and raked in the financial windfall from the builders, which built homes very close together and with scant setbacks for homes that have four, five and six bedrooms. Unfortunately, doing the math, we see that there are too many cars per family and not enough parking spaces. Then again, many homeowners do not use their garages for cars and, not wanting to block someone in by doubling up the cars in their driveway, they know that since the village does not enforce the new parking ordinance, the overflow of cars can use the streets.

What the council is saying is, if you want to put a ping-pong table in your garage, you can illegally park in the street. The other residents will have to put up with the hazard for their children, forgo having their mail delivered due to the vehicles blocking their mail boxes and since the garbage cans are blocked also, you may not get them taken care of either.

Of course, that's another issue the council does not want to talk about. You know the expensive garbage cans designed to be picked up by special trucks that automatically empty the cans from curbside? It only requires a driver without extra helpers, very cost efficient. Oops, I forgot: They cannot pull up next to the cans, since illegally parked vehicles block them.

No problem. The change to rear-loading garbage trucks, requiring a driver plus two helpers, solved this dilemma. Folks, wasn't the garbage collection system supposed to be efficient? This was a costly blunder. How was it financed? Maybe they can use the excuse of hurricane cleanup and charge everyone an impact fee.

I personally would like to see an accounting on voting records for each council member so when election time comes, we can weed out the spendthrifts and fiscally irresponsible.